Kingdom Hearts: Falling up- the Keyblade Master takes a side-trip
Disclaimer: I own nothing. (Wow! Really!)
Spoilers: Dunno, really. Just don't read it if you haven't read/played the stories involved.
Rating: Um, M, just to be on the safe side.
Warnings: Uh, Violence, a little bit of Bad Language, smidgen of slash, alludes to mature stuff. I think…. Overabundance of sarcasm and craziness. I completely play around with timelines and canon. Why? Because I can.
Should be fun.
Chapter One- Falling Up
Unknown world
They never saw it coming.
Back to back, the trinity was doing what they did best- and so often. They were fighting heartless. Granted, they hadn't particularly wanted to be fighting at that particular time. Only minutes before, in fact, Sora and Donald had been fast asleep, and Goofy had been looking at the stars and thinking of home. As well as watching for danger, of course. He'd warned them when the Heartless had ambushed them, but by then Sora had already been awake, nerves kick-starting his tired brain as the Keyblade shimmered into his hand. Already unhappy about being awake, Sora and Donald had surged to stand with their companion, weapons appearing from wherever they were when they weren't in their hands. The hiss and crackle of Donald's lightning magic, Goofy's odd battle cry and the deadly whisper of the keyblade all blurred together into familiar battle-music.
Just like any other number of mornings, really.
But it wasn't to last. Even as the last of the dark mob were dispatched with the use of Trinity Limit, a strange light came upon the group. They didn't see it over the fading glory of their finishing attack, and by the time Sora figured out that there was something up with that glowy light wrapping around them, it was too late. Even as he flipped impossibly high into the air to avoid it, it surged after him and enveloped him. Donald and Goofy cried out in alarm, and lunged forward. They only succeeded in being enveloped, too. An instant later, only the fading sound of their cries was left. The three, along with the odd light, were gone.
Hogwarts, England, Earth
A certain boy-who-lived was enjoying his morning, for once. He's eaten his breakfast early and followed by his somewhat quizzical friends, he'd wandered in rare good humor down by the lake. Harry was happy, for once. He was full, warm, and no-one had tried to kill him lately. Better yet, he'd had undisturbed sleep, a real rarity when your name is Harry Potter and a homicidal Dark Lord is trying to kill you. Hermione and Ron were somewhat confused by his happiness but were hardly going to let it pass by, following beside him as he hummed-hummed-his way around the grounds of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ron was still munching on a piece of toast when all three were stopped in their tracks by a strange sound.
They froze.
While other people might have continued on, only momentarily disturbed by the interference in an otherwise flawless morning, when you're Harry or one of his friends, you get ready for anything. They drew closer, wands appearing in hands, staring around for whatever had made that high, unnatural scream.
It was the scream of pure magic, old and potent. And it was dropping off three passengers. Three rather different passengers.
It's no secret that magic works in strange, exciting, and often downright dangerous ways.
And it's not hard to figure out that the Keyblade is the cause of many strange, exciting, and downright dangerous things. The Keyblade Master- Sora- was a figure firmly on the side of light. (He's saved the universe. It's kind of a given.) He had an incredible heart, full of light and love for his friends, his world, and often for perfect strangers. ( Here that incredibly cliché idea that strangers are only friends you haven't met yet actually has a little credibility, since Sora's overwhelming happiness tends to blindside people and before they know it they're helping him out.) The point was, that Sora was a maelstrom of magic and possibility, emphasized and directed by the weapon that lived in his heart.
The Keyblade.
With a mixture of chance, fate, and magic, Sora always managed to end up exactly where he needed to be. He'd land on the right world to uncover a dark plot by one the Organization's followers, for example. It's a skill.
Every so often, however, when he's truly needed somewhere, whatever power lives inside the keyblade doesn't just give him a nudge, it full on pushes him. In this case, instead of waiting to see if he discovered this world on his journey's, it grabbed him, picked him up, transported him across the galaxy, and dumped him on it.
Dumped quite literally, in this case.
It's a good thing that Hogwart's lake is so deep, because Sora, Donald, and Goofy fell quite a way through the air before impacting with the water's surface and disappearing beneath.
--
The Hogwart's trio whipped around to face the lake, and stared. An odd patch of luminescence was flashing and shifting some hundred feet above the lake, hard to see against the glow of morning's light. The strange sound was emitting from it, sort of like the tortured squeal of a kettle. Only worse. Threads of blue light snapped with seeming anger at the air. With the trio staring up in confusion- and a touch of fear- it spat out three figures before the squeal rose to a crescendo and the light fell in on itself.
Within seconds, the portal was gone, and there was no sign that it had ever existed.
Well, except for the three that had just surfaced, spluttering, in the middle of the lake.
By silent consensus, Ron was the one that peeled off from the group and sprinted off towards the castle, while Hermione and Harry cautiously shifted towards the water's edge, squinting against the dawn at the three people coming there way.
"Uh, are you…alright?"
Funny, two were fairly normal sized, but there was a little one that seemed to be skimming the surface towards them. Then they were close enough to see them without the sun in their eyes and their jaws simultaneously dropped.
This is understandable. Everyone's first reaction to the three anywhere outside of Disney Castle, was shock. This may have been a magic school, but one of their visitor's seemed to be a giant duck. And was that a dog?! Harry barely glanced at the boy, caught up with the fascinating appearance of the…animal-people? They wore clothes, and when they splashed up to him, panting, he saw the gleam of human intelligence in their eyes.
"Waddya lookin' at?" Snapped the duck. Harry almost fell over.
--
"Donald!" The boy cried, embarrassed, and Harry, mouth still open, turned to look at him and was once again struck dumb. Luckily, Hermione, quick thinker that she was, was a few steps ahead of him. A few dozen, usually.
"Hello, I'm sorry if we startled you, but you arrived in rather an odd manner. My name is Hermione Granger, this is Harry, and excuse me, but what are you doing in the lake?"
Which is Hermione for you.
--
Sora blushed, sweeping water out of his eyes with one slender hand. He was trying to think of something to say, as well as drag himself out of the lake. Which would normally not be a problem, but his fairy-made clothes had several interesting quirks. One of which became evident whenever he ended up in Atlantica. For one, they vanished. Another important fact, and what probably had the dark-haired youth his age gaping, was that he traded feet for flippers.
Goofy came to his rescue. With a trademark ah-yuk! He waded easily onto the shore to grace the two with a big grin.
"Heya, there. It's nice ta meet you. I'm Goofy, this here's Donald, and this is Sora. Sorry about falling in your lake, and all, but we didn't mean to. We're kinda lost. Do ya mind telling us were we are?" There was a momentary silence. (Hermione had caught sight of Sora and her bookworm side waged a brief, fierce battle with her commonsense. Good manners won out, barely.)
"He-hello. Er, this is Hogwarts. You're obviously all magical- um, Sora was it? Do you need a hand there?" Sora blushed again. He'd been trying to discretely get all out of the water so that he could concentrate on turning back to normal, but had only managed to draw attention to himself. He curled his tail a little, embarrassed. Normally he was much more controlled with meeting new people, but he was rather at a disadvantage here. He cleared his throat. The comment about magic decided him.
"Yes, yes please. I need to be out of the water, see. I'm Sora, it's nice to meet you, and I'm really sorry about all this, but I don't know exactly how we got here."
Harry moved forward, finally closing his mouth, and began to tug Sora out of the water, aided by a chuckling Goofy and an amused Donald.
"Out of the water? But you're obviously some kind of sea-creature? A merman, I shouldn't wonder, one I've never heard of, the ones in this lake are quite different, you know-." Harry cut her off before Sora blushed any harder.
"As the sea-creature in question, I'm sure Sora knows what he needs, Mione."
Hermione blushed herself, moving forward to assist. Together they got him back from the water's edge. Hermione couldn't help herself, leaning forward in fascination to stare at his sky-blue tail, tentatively reaching out, and getting an embarrassed nod, ran her fingers over the solid muscle, marveling in the warmth and texture. Other than the tail, he could have been any other boy- although with his wide, sky-colored eyes and gravity defying, blonde streaked chocolate hair he was undoubtably one of the cutest she'd ever seen. And were those scars on his chest?
Damn, she'd almost had that blush under control, too. Good thing Ron wasn't here.
Speaking of Ron, he was panting and leading a small pack of teacher's- as well as a few curious early rising students- in their direction. Harry turned to look at them, then turned to the odd trio.
"It's the Headmaster and a couple of staff members," he assured them. "They might be able to help find out what happened."
Well, typically, Harry's peace had been shattered, but so far they hadn't tried to kill him- and oddly, he felt that they wouldn't try. Perhaps it was Sora's blush and sheepish smile. And seriously, no-one who sees Donald and Goofy at first think themselves in danger. While they are in fact, very accomplished warriors, they are none the less, a giant duck and a giant, humanoid dog. Hilarity before fear, after all…
--
Sora so far wasn't liking this day. At least Donald and Goofy were with him. Nonetheless, he'd been woken up from a sound sleep at night, fought with a bunch of now extremely dead heartless, then been kidnapped by some weird light, and dumped in a lake God-knows-where. And he was currently sporting a tail. In front of other people, people quite notably without them. And now it was day, and all he really wanted to do was sink back into the lake and go back to sleep. Now Sora was, personality wise, like a bright light bulb of good will and happiness. (Although if you threatened someone he cared about he was scary. Then again, he was scary when he was all perky and happy anyway.) But some situations really aren't fair. This was one of them.
Ron skidded to a halt, staring at the newcomers, his face the same color as his hair. Behind him, the group of teachers halted with much more decorum. Sora looked them over, his tail curling and uncurling a little as he sheepishly stared up at them from his place on the ground. His right hand shifted in his lap, half-curling as if around a weapon he didn't yet have. He found his eyes drawn to the magic-user with the long white hair and beard. He wasn't as strong as, say, Merlin, but Sora could feel his magic licking at the air around him.
"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger- what on earth?" Sora switched his eyes to the woman who had spoken, and went for a wide smile with undying optimism.
"Sorry, lady. We didn't mean to intrude or anything, but the magic kinda just grabbed us- just after a fight, too- and now it'll be a minute or so before I turn back." The stern-looking woman blinked at him.
"Turn, turn back? I'm sorry, what-?" The old magic-user stepped forward, smiling easily, his eyes twinkling with his magic.
"Now, now, Minerva, I'm sure he'll explain if you gave him a moment." He smiled kindly at the boy-turned-merman.
Donald and Goofy decided to speak up. All they managed really was a hello, before they stopped. This was due to the incredulous looks on the adult's faces. (One of the curious students who had trailed along screamed and fell over.) Harry and Hermione rushed forward to fill the stunned silence.
"This is Donald and Goofy, and this is Sora, they fell out of some kind of portal above the lake." (Hermione)
"They said they were lost, Professor. And Sora said he needed to be out of the water." (Harry)
Sora waved his hand at the little crowd, getting their attention.
"Yeah, sorry about the interruption. It's just my clothes were made by fairies, for pretty much any kind of situation, and even though this isn't Atlantica, as soon as I hit the water I transformed. It should only take a minute to-." Sora was cut of himself here as a warm sensation flowed around him. His tail tingled. He fell silent, almost purring at the feeling of magic wrapping around him, head tilting unconsciously back. He was unaware of it, but he was glowing. A soft, golden hue had settled over his form, and the teachers of Hogwarts leant forward in fascination. His eyes half-closed, and he was barely aware of Donald's wing on his arm, or Harry's hand at the small of his back. His lips parted on a little sigh as the magic gathered, then with a flash his tail was gone and he had his legs back. Happily, his clothes had also returned, from wherever it was they went to when they did that. Probably the same place his Keyblade went to, he supposed. With another sigh, this one of relief, he pulled himself to his feet, and taking advantage of the absolute silence wrought by his transformation, gave them a true smile.
"That's better. Now, you said this place was called Hogwarts, or something?"
